newborn of the sea

We got a call from some neighbors last night that there was an abandoned seal pup on the beach. Newborn. Umbilicus still attached. Folks were walking up to it and touching it.

Okay, that's really wrong, but I can understand, since the damned thing is so unbelievably cute.

There was some wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth about what to do, but the proper thing to do is nothing. And disturbing these creatures is against the law. So for the record, I didn't take the following pictures, though I'm happy to use them here. Seal pups are frequently left on the beach while mama hunts, and usually mama comes back at night to feed the baby. After reading all the articles I was able to Google up, I had no reason to think the baby was either abandoned or in distress, but I wanted to see it anyway.

So when we took our evening walk (at about 8:30) with the dog, we first stepped out on the dock and used our field glasses to see if the pup was still there. It was. No matter, since I can't walk on the beach at present anyway, so we just took our usual trail route and stopped occasionally to peer through the field glasses and see what the pup was up to. By the time we'd finished our circuit (around 9:30) it was gone. Completely. No trace. I even walked out on the beach a bit to see if it had hauled itself up to the Nootka roses.

So I gotta believe that either it hauled up or went for a swim with mama, and either way, it wasn't in distress, and all's right with the world.















photos by Danny Shaw